'Afzal Guru Squad' Behind Attack On Army Camp In Nagrota?

Avenge-Guru strike.

HuffPost Staff

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Indian army soldiers patrol on the Jammu-Srinigar National Highway during a combing operation after a gun battle with armed militants at an Indian army base at Nagrota, some 15 kms from Jammu on November 30, 2016.

The terror attack that killed seven officers in Nagrota this week was allegedly carried out to avenge the hanging of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Afzal Guru, according to the documents recovered from the slain militants.

Sources told the paper that it was likely that the Afzal Guru squad -- a unit of the Jaish -- was behind the attacks.

Meanwhile the army has denied that there was any intelligence failure in the attack.

"There were no specific intelligence," the outgoing Northern Army Command chief Lt-General D S Hooda told the Times of India. "Generalised intelligence alerts, which hold high-value targets are going to be attacked, are a routine practice in J&K," another officer, who was not named, told the paper.

"We are working on these links. We are going into all details, and investigation has started (into the links of JeM with Nagrota terror attack after recovery of notes in Urdu)", Director General Of Police (DGP) K Rajendra Kumar told PTI.

According to reports, a note, along with three AK-47 rifles, magazines and UBGL grenades, was recovered from the site of attack, points to the involvement of JeM's Afzal Guru Squad.

The note, written in Urdu with name bearing at the end of AGS of JeM, says that they have avenged the death of Guru. The recovered explosives were disposed off by controlled explosions.

JeM have named a squad after Afzal Guru to target security forces in India last year.

It was first exposed in November last year, when Indian Army repulsed a major fidayeen (suicidal) attack on its Gorkha Rifles (GR) camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tangdhar and recovered bags with Afzal Guru Squad markings.

Guru's name also cropped up in Pathankot when Rajesh Verma, who was abducted along with Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police told reporters that the militants had told him that they wanted to avenge the death of 2001 Parliament attack convict.

The DGP further said that security agencies were probing if the group came from International Border (IB) and was part of a group of three militants killed at the border in Ramgarh sector in Samba yesterday. (With PTI inputs)